The morning coffee is delayed due to weak gas flow…familiar problem guys? James sorts it temporarily through careful analysis of the situation….and then hitting the regulator hard with a spanner. This sorts it temporarily, but clearly we need to do something more permanent and elegant. We source some Camping Gaz complete with regulator and after a few (unrelated) electrical repairs we are good to go.
We set off in a gloriously sunny but fresh morning bound for Guernsey. Passage planning was slightly fraught as we are on French time, some of our tide apps are on GMT others on BST and we haven’t a clue what Guernsey does…..probably thinks it is still 1957!
One of 3 Penduik boats we pass…a tribute to Eric Taberly
The sail is wonderful, albeit with the help of the trusty Thorneycroft and soon the nuclear power plant at Cap de la Hague is passing by and we are swept into the fearsome Alderney Race. Even if we wanted to go back now, there is no way we could and we are swept past the Cap and on to Alderney in a headlong dash south west. We have the company of half a dozen other sailing boats for company and once things have calmed down we treat ourselves to lunch and a few light repairs and general fiddling.
Guernsey and Herm come up to meet us…
…..surrounded by some impressive rocks and generally nasty pointy bits. This is OK in the dark, as it is well lit, but we are glad for the sunny afternoon ride into St Peter Port.
The pilot books are clear about Guernsey being treated differently and for he first time in ages we hoist a yellow (I require customs clearance) flag….after Brexit we assume it will get rather more use!
Guernsey is part of the British isles but not the UK and is not in the EU. We have no idea without looking what the difference is between the British Isles and the UK. We soon find out as we are met by the harbour launch who gives us a landing form to fill in. This is more detailed than the landing cards we fill in when going to Hong Kong…grrrr. James is always enthralled by bureaucracy and fills it in virtually illegibly…ha, that’ll show them…another blow is struck for the rights of the individual…and grumpy old men.
We seem to be sharing the pontoon with 3 boats of French youths…quiet night then….but a trip to the co-op for some coffee and ice elicits more grumpiness as they don’t accept ‘English’ co-op cards. Exactly why are we defending them?? The ice sorts out a very nice couple of G&Ts on deck as the sun goes down, and we get into some serious passage planning for tomorrow which will be a long (20 hour plus) overnighter to L’Aber Wrac’h at the tip of Cape Finisterre.
heydays346 